Redeeming The Time

The most important aspect of the Gospel after the Nativity is that God is in control, always, but we rarely know the full story. We must learn to trust. In this homily we talk about a lot of other things, too: the life of St James the brother of the Lord, the horrible death of Herod, the interpretation of dreams, and how to learn to trust in God. We all struggle to trust, but by trying the thought-experiment of being "priest for a day", we could learn that not only do we all struggle, but that the only solution to the things we do not understand is prayer. Everybody is struggling, but if everyone was priest for a day, they would pray more and be more sure that their small struggle would be increased by God and they would be saved.

On the Sunday before Nativity, the genealogy from St. Matthew's Gospel is read. This is a "rouges gallery" of people, and the spiritual meaning is clear. God can make anything good. He is always in control. We have no excuses if we are bad. This is not a reason to stop trying, only this will cause us to fall. If we try, God will make the bad good. This is truly good news!

The Parable of the Great Supper is always read two Sundays before Nativity. We explain the parable in terms of the the incarnation, how men react to this great miracle, and how it effects us. We then get to the important part—applying the parable to our spiritual life, and looking at a few of the parable's peculiar statements: "Then the master of the house being angry..." and "Compel them to come in." There is a mystical teaching here about the important and good passion of anger, and how it is used to save the soul, and how the soul is compelled to act righteously. This "compelling" does not violate our free will—on the other hand, it must be born voluntarily from deep within us, voluntarily, and energized by good anger.

On December 25, perhaps half of the Orthodox world celebrates the Nativity of our Lord, and we others remember St Herman and St Spyridon. The Gospel spoken about today may not appear to be about Christmas, but it is, because we celebrate the implications of the Nativity (every day, in every service) more than the event itself. Because of the Nativity, we can become saints. We need faith to be saints, and indeed, to live the Christian life even a tiny bit. It is natural for us to therefore echo the words of the Apostles: "Increase (be increasing) our faith" We need to read Scripture in context to fully glean its meaning. The order in which stories are presented is sometimes very important. The way Jesus answers questions of very important; He never answers *just* the question. We have an example here of both things: sandwiched around the request of the Apostles is His teaching on forgiveness, and humility. We have the answer! This is how to increase our faith! We must "take heed to ourselves" and forgive, and

There are phrases in the Gospel that are repeated so often that we should take special note of them. One goes like this: "Thy faith hath made thee whole." Only one of ten cleansed lepers received this blessing. All had faith, as their story attests, but only one had saving faith. What energizes saving faith? One of the most important things is thankfulness. How do we cultivate thankfulness in our life? It ain't just what we say!

The Evangelist Luke explains why the rich young ruler rejected the Gospel; he was very rich. Yet there is a deeper reason, and it applies to each of us, no matter what our financial status. The man did not know the things in this life that are alive, and the things that are dead. We suffer from the same malady to varying degrees. The most important task of each day is to ask ourselves what things lead to life and what things lead to death. How can we answer this question daily?

We hear glorious words today, words that every Christian should be earnestly expecting: "Thou art loosed from thine infirmity." The woman with the infirmity of 18 years could not look up—she was earthbound because of sin. So are we. We must feel our infirmity and desire to stand up straight! Unfortunately, many people do not feel their infirmity, and therefore do not expect to be loosed from it. We must cultivate this feeling. The aftermath of the healing of this woman shows us the major sin which keeps us from knowing our infirmity and seeking the healing of God—unkindness. The ruler of the synagogue knew all the commandments save the most important two, and the second will especially save us. If we cannot stop sinning, we must at least be kind, and God will loose us from our infirmities.

The typical reading at liturgy for feasts of the Theotokos is a curious composite selection of two events that did not occur in close proximity to one another. This fact must mean that the selection is teaching us something important about the Theotokos. We discuss the reading, which begins with the story of Mary and Martha, the complaints of Martha, and the answer of Jesus; it then segues to the cry of a woman in the crowd, and the answer of Jesus (usually not translated correctly): "Yea indeed, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." We discuss why the Theotokos is so-called, and why we say "Most Holy Theotokos save us." It is all about the incarnation, and obedience, and the striving for holiness. We also discuss why the veneration of the Theotokos is very important in our increasingly impure society.

The Parable of the Harvest of the Rich Man is a teaching on the disastrous effect of keeping our own counsel, and how it makes it impossible for us to have soul-saving "remembrance of death." In this episode, we explain this important virtue and how the rich man mistook death for life. He equated the love of riches and pleasures, which are death, with life. Let us learn from his example!

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is the answer to the question "Who is my neighbor". It answers much more: it completely explains the reason for the incarnation. In so doing it also teaches us how to live as the "Samaritan" so that there is no encounter with our neighbor that is random—each has a purpose.

The healing of the woman with the issue of blood and the daughter of Jairos are a primer on faith. Faith is not just belief; It is action based on belief, and even action in spite of disbelief. It involves courage, and initiative, patience, endurance, and not listening to negative thoughts - self-talk. All these things are present in this story. We also discuss faith and the Jesus prayer, that prayer that tests our faith and rewards us when we have faith. We must learn to be like Jairos in our prayer. He walked with the Lord to the house, even though he knew his daughter was dead. No matter what we think, God knows the truth. To the Lord that girl was alive, and that is all that matters, for He sees everything as it really is.

We look in detail at the petition from the Great Ectenia: "That we may be delivered from all tribulation, wrath, and necessity, let us pray to the Lord."

There is, as is often the case in the Scriptures, good news and bad news today. The good news is that a tormented demoniac, could be delivered from his affliction and that he could be "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind." These are among the most beautiful words in Scripture. The healing of the Gadarene demoniac is our healing too. All the healings of the Scriptures apply to us. If we are not demon-possessed (God forbid!), how does the expulsion of a legion of demons from a possessed man apply to us? If we read the scripture with desire and compunction, the answer is clear. We have a legion of passions, and we are (should be) striving to be rid of all of them, so that we can be in our "right mind." The bad news is that man can be so tormented by his passions, and that even when healing occurs, it is not recognized, because of spiritual blindness. We must understand the bad to appreciate the good.

The Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus has much deep symbolism and theological meaning. All that is important to know, but the most pressing aspect of the Gospel is that we meet Christ, and learn to become like Him. We must look for moral direction when we read the Gospels, and the focus of this parable is the dialogue of Abraham with the rich man: "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." We speak about attitudes and priorities. Many times we do not understand about the eternal choices we a making in our temporary time on Earth. We must learn to think eternally, and spiritually, and then we will understand about temporary good things in this life, and permanent good things in the next. we also talk about the epistle read for St Artemius today, which ties in very well: "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this

The Parable of the Sower and the Seed is one of the few parables explained by Christ, but still needs to be talked about because many have no idea what this parable means, nor its explanation. The purpose of Christianity is fulfilled only by bearing fruit. This parable describes 4 kinds of ground, that is, souls, and only one kind bears fruit and is saved. We look quickly at the 3 kinds of ground that are not saved, especially focusing on the words that should be emphasized, such as "cares and riches and pleasures". The description of the good ground is the most important part of the parable, and we look at the critical words "honest and good heart." This parable refutes the heresy of "faith without works", but more importantly, teaches us what we must do to prepare our ground to receive the seed and be filled with God. the parable does not tell us that we must stop sinning to be saved, but must have an honest and good heart. This is good news for those who desire to be saved!

The resurrection of the son of the Widow of Nain teaches how to love and how to hear God. It is not accidental that two crowds of people met and that Jesus alone noticed the grieving widow. Jesus showed love that was overflowing from within Him—the love of God. Most people are suffering, and we must become aware of them if we are to understand God when He communicates with us. Jesus communicated with the widow in three distinct ways, as he does with all of us. We must understand His methods if we are to understand Him. This healing is advanced instruction in how to love, how to pray, and how to hear God answer us.